The definitive website on wildbirds & nature

Birds of America

By John James Audubon, F. R. SS. L. & E.

VOLUME VII.

Not having met with this beautiful little Gull, I am obliged to refer to
Dr. RICHARDSON's description of it in the Fauna Boreali-Americana.

"Cuneate-tailed Gull, with a pearl-grey mantle. Wings longer than the
cuneiform tail. The outer web of the first tail-feather blackish; a slender
black bill, tarsi an inch long, and, as well as the feet, vermilion red.

"Two specimens of this Gull were killed on the coast of Melville Peninsula,
on Sir EDWARD PARRY's second voyage, one of which is preserved in the Museum of
the University of Edinburgh, and the other was presented tO JOSEPH SABINE, Esq.
No other examples are known to exist in collections; but Commander Ross, in his
Zoological Appendix to Sir EDWARD PARRY's narrative of his most adventurous
boat-voyage towards the Pole, relates that several were seen during the journey
over the ice north of Spitzbergen, and that Lieutenant FORSTER also found the
species in Waygait Straits, which is probably one of its breeding places. It is
to Commander Ross, who killed the first specimen which was obtained, that the
species is dedicated, as a tribute for his unwearied exertions in the promotion
of natural history on the late Arctic voyages, in all of which he bore a part.
Of the peculiar habits or winter retreat of this species nothing is known.

"Colour.--Scapulars, inter-scapulars, and both surfaces of the wings clear
pearl-grey; outer web of the first quill blackish-brown to its tip, which is
grey; tips of the scapulars and lesser quills whitish. Some small feathers near
the eye, and a collar round the middle of the neck pitch black; rest of the
plumage white. The neck above and the whole under plumage deeply tinged with
peach-blossom red in recent specimens. Bill black; its rictus and the edges of
the eyelids reddish-orange. Legs and feet vermilion-red; nails blackish.

"Form.--Bill slender, weak, with a scarcely perceptible salient angle
beneath; the tipper mandible slightly arched and compressed towards the point;
the commissure slightly curved at the tip. Wings an inch longer than the
decidedly cuneiform tail, of which the central feathers are an inch longer than
the lateral. Tarsi rather stout; the thumb very distinct, armed with a nail as
large as that of the outer toe.

"The other specimen killed by Mr. SHERER a few days later, differs only in
the first primary coverts having the same dark colour with the outer web of the
first primary itself.